Hybridized Patriarchal Hegemony: Two Newspapers and Their Reports of the Qu Mei-fong Scandal in Taiwan

Through our analysis of the news reports of Qu Mei-fong Scandal by two influential newspapers, China Times (CT) and United Daily News (UDN), in Taiwan, we found a hybridized patriarchal hegemony embedded in their reports, with characteristic intermingling of Confucian and capitalist patriarchal discourses. By concentrating on the stories of female characters through the negative representation of them, and by mildly handling the stories of male characters by ignoring their harmful actions in the scandal, the two newspapers held a patriarchal position in reporting the scandal. Furthermore, by emphasizing the main female character, Qu, as a home-breaker, as well as by commodifying her as their product and subjecting her to the rule of profit-making through their discourses, the newspapers sustained Confucian concubine culture and disseminated capitalist patriarchal messages.

Publisher: Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Sociological Association, Marriott Hotel, Loews Philadelphia Hotel, Philadelphia, PA, Aug 12, 2005
Year of Publication: 2007